Our knowledge of history is fragmented and often reliant on tales that are told by people several decades or even centuries after an event has happened. As Oxford historian Das shows, at the beginning of the reign of James I, England had not yet become a colonial power, as Elizabeth I had embraced isolationism in international politics. In “Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India’s Most Controversial King,” Audrey Truschke, of Rutgers University, re-examines the evidence and questions the severity of the verdict. The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple is an extraordinary gathering of detailed information about a time we know so little about. In 1615, Thomas Roe (1581-1644) became the first ambassador to the Mughal court, and he was enormously influential in how India was portrayed in England henceforth.
Yet today Aurangzeb is remembered for razing Hindu temples, forcibly converting nonbelievers and banning music outright. His son, Aurangzeb, the last of the so-called great Mughal emperors, whose reign spanned nearly 50 years (1658-1707), enlarged the empire’s borders to their furthest extent. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857 is a 2006 historical book by William Dalrymple. The first Mughal emperor, Babur, wrested power from the Lodi dynasty in 1526 and wrote one of the world’s outstanding memoirs the second, Humayun, rallied from defeat and exile to restore Mughal sovereignty in 1555 the third, Akbar, promoted an exemplary religious syncretism, abolishing the poll tax for non-Muslims in 1564 the fourth, Jahangir, was Mughal portraiture’s keenest patron and connoisseur and the fifth, Shah Jahan, built Delhi’s Red Fort and the Taj Mahal.
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